February 3, 2025
Reid/Silverbell loop
I’m off on another birding outing today, combining an early run over to Reid Park with a loop around the northwestern horn of the loop - out Rillito Wash past the Tucson Mall again, where I’m still expecting to see those mockingbirds that were always there in the past, but aren’t today for some reason; and then finally joining to the Santa Cruz and biking up its western side to Silverbell Lake, thinking this will be the day I Finally spot the resident bight heron. But that doesn’t happen either, and the outing is nearly a bird bust except for one surprise that makes it worth the ride (which after all was worth the ride anyway, because it’s a beautiful day to be out here and not back in Portland where the highs right now are about 45F and often wet, rather than the almost summery heat wave we’re basking in here).
The exception? This raptor perched at the top of a utility standard near the end of Rillito Wash. when I first see him it’s a profile shot and I’m puzzled by its solid black mantle and plain white breast. I’m thinking it’s another red-tail in its white phase - red-tails have so many different manifestations - but then I work more around to the front and am amazed to see it’s a bird that wasn’t even on my radar for a possibility in Tucson. It’s an osprey.
Later I’ll research this and confirm that Tucson does get the occasional osprey here, and when they’re seen it’s exactly in spots like this. I’m especially pleased because I’ve wondered if this is the first year in many that I fail to see an osprey. They’re common in Oregon in season, but they don’t arrive until mid-spring, almost like they’re swapping places with the sandhill cranes on Sauvie Island. So it will just be a question of timing when we’re back in Portland as to whether I see one there this year or not.
Oh - and there’s also the Anna’s hummingbird I see just taking wing up ahead after I leave Reid Park. My first hummer of the year, and one that especially pleases me because I’m really pretty far off from him when I spot him atop a snag ahead. These new prescription glasses are going to work out just fine.
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After I’ve completed the loop I stop back by the house to change into my street clothes, pick up the iPad and SD card adapter and bike back east toward the UofA campus where I stop in at Gentle Bens for a pair of chicken tacos while I sit in the shade and cull through the photos from the day.
And somewhere in here - either at Gentle Ben’s or when I’m at home - I get a call from a distressed Rachael, wondering where the hell her Uber ride dropped her, because nothing looks at all familiar.
Rachael’s walk is another one I mapped out for her that starts by catching the Sun Trans up to the Tucson Mall for another hike north into the Catalina foothills. I’m pretty excited for her about the walk I’ve come up with her, to the Tehono Chul Gardens. It looks like an excellent destination for her, or for me for that matter. For her, I point out that there are several marked restrooms; and in the center of the park there’s apparently a crested saguaro to be seen.
The downside is that it’s a paid admission site - $15 - which she may not want to spring for today, but I figure she can at least use the restrooms at the entrance before turning back.
Unfortunately for her, her route planner screwed up and didn’t map her to the actual entrance. She reaches the point I’d mapped her to, sees there’s no way in, and turns south to walk back to the bus station to catch a ride home. And here’s where things went all rocky. The buses all stop at a circle east of the mall, essentially a little transit mall with buses coming in and terminate here. There are half a dozen different buses parked here, but Rachael finds hers, gets on the bus and finds it’s a crammed madhouse - full of kids and folks with mobility devices. She finds her seat and then starts trying to track her position on the Garmin. It takes awhile before it’s apparent that she’s gotten on the wrong bus and is going north away from town, not back toward it.
She asks the driver, he confirms that she’s northbound, and lets her off where she can walk across the street to catch the southbound bus when it comes by. Instead though she decides it’s time to call Uber.
It has taken awhile for us to realize that there are some ways to go wrong with Uber down here. There’s the confusion of where you’re trying to get to as your end destination if it’s not a known location on the map (like our place, for example). And there’s the confusion about where the designated pickup spot is. We’re gradually getting better but we’ve probably had three or four instances now where there’s been confusion of some sort.
So here’s one more. Rachael hand-enters our address on her phone so she can list it as the destination but cobbles it and adds an extra digit. She gets dropped off there, looks around, looks at the map, and is totally confused. So she gives me a call. It takes awhile to figure out where she is, but we locate her once she walks to the nearest intersection so she can see the names of the two streets. She’s at the corner of Columbus and East Texas Circle - nearly five miles east of our place, and only a few blocks from the Loft Theater. I consider having her just stay there while I bike over to locate her and help her get back home, but it makes the most sense to have her call for another Uber pickup, and have it drop her off at the bank just a half block from us, which is locatable.
So, not a great outcome, but hopefully a lesson learned on mastering Uber. And there’s almost the material here for a good story day, but one that’s constrained to just a confusing and stressful hour.
And at the end of the day Rachael looks out the window and says I really should take a photo of the reddening sky to the south, and so it do.
Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 549 miles (884 km)
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